AirPods Max - First Impressions and Beyond
The time has come for Apple to finally introduce to the world their first pair of over the ear high quality headphones. AirPods Max enters the market as a top of the line option for consumers in the Apple ecosystem. Now I have used wired EarPods and the wireless AirPods for years. To date Apple’s highest quality earphones have been their AirPods Pro introduced Nov 2019 which are in-ear earphones. The tech built inside of AirPods Pro is amazing and I reviewed them originally back in 2019, link here.
AirPods Max is a completely different product. First off, let’s talk about build quality. Apple took a different approach than majority of other headphone manufacturers making the design metal. I noticed this stunning material the moment I picked them up out of the box. They are a bit heavier than I thought they would be, but not so heavy that they’re a complete blocker from using them. You can tell that Apple took a lot of time and engineering into ensuring these were built to be a premium product, but who are these built for? I truly believe they’re for the high end consumer who simply wants the best listening experience possible while using their Apple products. Someone who wants hardware and software to work hand in hand, and not have to think about how to get the product to work, but rather what work can I get done while using the product? The AirPods Max are bluetooth capable, so you can connect them to other non-Apple devices, but I’m not sure why you would want to. Using these with non-Apple products lose the deep software integration and smart features driven by Apple’s operating systems.
Now I will say after my research online, the AirPods Max are the most expensive wireless consumer headphones you can buy to date, with wireless being the key factor here coming in at $549.00 plus tax. There are indeed a multitude of wired headphones that you can buy that are designed to be used for video editing and high end post production, but they are all designed to be hard wired first. Apple’s AirPods Max can become hard wired headphones with the Apple Lighting to 3.5mm bi-directional cable which sadly is not included in the box. This cable costs an additional $35.00 plus tax directly from Apple. More on this lighting cable later. Link here
In the box you can expect to find the AirPods Max, Smart Case, and Lighting to USB C Cable. No power brick has been included in the box imitating their packaging of their latest version of iPhone 12 and 12 Pro. The AirPods Max come with a lighting port built in, digital crown (exactly like Apple Watch) for volume control, and a physical button to activate Transparency and Noise Cancellation Modes.
Another physical attribute to call out is that the ear cushions are detachable via magnets. This is also unique, as these ear cushions likely will be the first part of the AirPods Max that need to be replaced. Giving consumers this ability to replace the ear cushions without replacing the entire headphone is a big win. Apple sells replacements for these on their website and mobile App, and are priced at $69.00 for a pair. Although this price may first come off as steep, this is a bit over 12% of the total cost of the product. So giving users the chance to grow with these is an awesome win for the consumer. I feel we will most likely see third party ear cushions sold at a much more affordable price, much like Apple Watch bands, but the jury is out to see if they will work as good as the first hand ones directly from Apple.
One nice touch about AirPods Max is that they work exactly like AirPods and AirPods Pro. If you are playing a song, or watching a movie and you take them off your head, they immediately stop playing and pause your content. Put them back on your head, and they resume. This is another example of Apple creating a great experience going back to the mentality of “they just work”. And in this scenario they really do. I’ve tested this scenario on a multitude of devices, all with wonderful results.
I absolutely love how seamlessly AirPods Max switches from different Macs to iPhone and iPad. Now this technology isn’t brand new specifically to AirPods Max. AirPods, AirPods Pro, and even some Beats headphones will work like this, but it’s so refreshing to use tech that reacts so wonderfully together once you are connected to the ecosystem. The H1 chip in this device is a great example of the evolution of how technology used to “pair” to an individual computer wirelessly, and Apple so cleverly used their built up ecosystem via iCloud to take the experience to the next level.
The sound of these headphones are great. I mean insanely great. I tested wirelessly from my iPhone 12 Pro, 11” iPad Pro, as well as my Mac Pro and have similar experiences with all devices. From streaming music from Apple Music, watching a trailer on Apple TV +, or even watching some Youtube content, the sound quality is incredibly impressive in all scenarios. From rich highs and rounded out lows, I really enjoyed using these headphones. They also sound good using them on a conference call or a video call paired to your Apple device. Nine microphones are built into the AirPods Max with three being dedicated for voice pickup. No setup was necessary on that part, which is cool. After using these a few days, I personally feel these headphones would be a lovely experience used on an airplane, or watching a movie when you can have your head back on a headrest and not have to pay as close attention to a work video call/ screen share. As they are made of metal, opposed to plastic, they are a bit heavy for my taste to use on a daily basis in enterprise for hours at time. This is completely subjective to my personal experience, as I’m sure other people wouldn’t mind the weight at all.
The Digital Crown on the right side of the AirPods Max is another benefit of this product. This crown will allow you to adjust the volume of AirPods Max seamlessly without taking your eyes off of what you are doing. Let’s say you’re on a video call with your team at work and you don’t want to take your eyes off the screen, the digital crown offers a wonderful solution that you can turn clockwise or counterclockwise to adjust the volume on the fly. Here is another example embedding hardware and software integrations, as you can change this setting on your iPhone to control the direction that you turn the digital crown and the action that comes along with it.
You achieve this in iOS, navigate to:
Settings --
Bluetooth --
Tap the info icon next to AirPods Max --
Digital Crown --
and from there you can select Back to Front/ Front to Back.
My favorite physical feature of the AirPods Max is the physical button on the right side to enable noise cancellation or transparency mode. This works on the device itself and also when plugged in via bi-directional lightning to 3.5mm cable. I actually found myself using this button a lot! The engineering team did a great job with adding this as a physical button, as it’s significantly easier than swiping to control center, tap and holding volume slider, and switching from Transparency to Noise Cancellation. Even during this remote work from home time, my wife enjoys background noise while I work better in complete silence. The noise cancellation setting has been highly effective for me to focus and really get work done.
Another feature that I absolutely love is Spatial Audio. This feature is still quite new in the Apple ecosystem and at the time of writing this article only available on iPhone and iPad. So for someone looking to experience this immersive Spatial Audio with macOS you will have to wait until it’s released, not sure when that would be. After watching some content on Apple TV+ on my iPhone 12 Pro, I watched a trailer of a new upcoming show and I was immersed in sound coming from all directions. I’ve never experienced putting headphones on my left and right ear and experiencing sound coming right in front and behind me. It was quite wonderful to endure.
Transparency Mode Button
Once you have the AirPods Max paired to your iPhone you can navigate to:
Settings --
Bluetooth --
Tap the info icon next to AirPods Max --
Scroll down and select Spatial Audio to “See & Hear How It Works”.
You can listen to the clip here:
Now an opportunity where I feel Apple missed the mark is with Spatial Audio in conjunction with Apple Music. These are clearly fantastic headphones. The $549.00 price tag would have been more justified if Apple could have launched a music service that allowed for you to use AirPods Max to their fullest extent with the Apple Music library. Perhaps even an up-sell of a premium Apple Music subscription with lossless playback that somehow incorporated the Spatial Audio. Heck even give early adopters 3 months free of this premium music service for all purchases to a certain date. I can only imagine what a classical symphony, live event, or a Broadway cast album would sound like on AirPods Max with this new Spatial Audio incorporated. Not to say that Apple can’t incorporate this down the road, as it makes a lot of sense for these to evolve to that level. One thing I can foresee is this will not be a product that will be updated every year, and they will continue to get better over time. In 2021 Apple is set to launch their new Apple TV standalone box, and I’m sure there will be some cool integration from Apple TV directly to AirPods Max.
The battery life of the AirPods Max is quite impressive. According to apple.com they get 20 hours of playback, which seemed pretty true to life. My huge qualm with battery life is that in order for you to truly conserve battery and enter ultra-low power mode you are forced to use the included Apple Smart Case. This seems a bit crazy to me, as there is no on/ off switch on the headphones, so if you simply take them off your head, leave them on your desk, and pick them back up tomorrow, they are burning significantly more battery life than they would have if you left them in the smart case. Now I understand a bit why Apple did this to ensure when you pick them up and put them on your head they pair instantly. But let’s say someone loses their Smart Case, or simply doesn’t want to use it? The headphones aren’t holding charge as long as they would if they were inserted into it to activate ultra-low power mode. Additionally the smart case is not protecting more than 50% of the product. I believe these headphones are quite comfortable being as heavy as they are, but I am a bit concerned about how the mesh headband will wear over time, especially since the headband is exposed when inserted into the Apple Smart Case.
Smart Case
AirPods Max go until ultra-low power mode when inserted.
AirPods Max, like AirPods Pro, works in two modes - Transparency and Noise Cancellation mode. One difference that I noticed about AirPods Max is that transparency vs noise cancelling technology actually lives ON the device itself. Example: Let’s say I have the AirPods Max plugged into my original iPod via the lighting to headphone jack cable, I can enable transparency mode or noise cancelling with the physical button on the right headphone. Now that is impressive, and such a great evolution to make this product even more versatile than ever before. I had a lot of fun charging up my original iPod and using it with the new AirPods Max!
Let’s be clear about AirPods Max, these are absolutely amazing over the ear headphones. We know for a fact that they are already a success as they’re currently 10-12 week backordered directly from Apple at the time of this article. I’m also sure that these headphones will be around for quite some time. I can see the price potentially dropping over time, but I’m guessing no more than $50.00. Similar to how the HomePod did when it dropped from $349 to $299.00 USD retail. The price is steep on these headphones and is going to be a blocker for many people. The AirPods Max are an amazing product that comes with a Max price tag. For the Apple enthusiast, the consumer who wants the best over the ear headphones in the Apple ecosystem, or simply someone who loves Apple and price is no problem these are for you. If you are in the market for and currently don’t have any wireless headphones, I’d recommend at minimum picking up a pair of standard AirPods as I still feel standard AirPods are still one of the best things to come out of Apple in the post Steve Jobs era. AirPods mania is here to stay, and AirPods Max will give greater choice across the Apple earphone product lineup.
Happy listening and Happy Holidays! 🎧
-Joe
